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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27985332">Obstacles</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/autobotscoutriella/pseuds/autobotscoutriella'>autobotscoutriella</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers: Prime</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Explosives, Gen, Pre-Canon, Scouting missions, at least Tailgate is hoping for explosives</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:28:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>995</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27985332</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/autobotscoutriella/pseuds/autobotscoutriella</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Arcee and Tailgate plan their scouting mission in the face of some unexpected challenges.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Arcee &amp; Tailgate</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>FandomWeekly (2019-2020) Writing Challenge on Dreamwidth</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Obstacles</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally written for <a href="https://fandomweekly.dreamwidth.org/386867.html">FandomWeekly</a> prompt "Closed Doors".</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Given its status as a flier city, Arcee had expected the ground level of Vos to be relatively sparse, and the major complication of her scout mission to be finding enough shelter. But one look at the holomap, showing a maze of tunnels and passages winding through every corner under the towering buildings, sent every single plan that had started to form straight into the discard pile.</p>
<p>"Well, that's going to be a nightmare," Tailgate said cheerfully, spinning the hologram until he had a clear view of the south side of the city. "Any ideas?"</p>
<p>Arcee shot him a glance that bordered on a glare before grinning ruefully. "None that are going to be any good in that cybercat warren. What do Seekers <em>need</em> with that many tunnels?"</p>
<p>Tailgate shrugged. "Maybe they didn't want to have to see any of the grounders that lived in Vos, I dunno. Or maybe it's for weather shelter. They've got plenty of skywalks, too, but those aren't so great in high winds."</p>
<p>"Hm." Arcee conceded the point with a grunt and hauled herself up onto the tabletop to get a closer look at the hologram. "I don't like the idea of splitting up, but if we're going to cover enough of those tunnels to bring Prime a decent report, I think we're going to have to."</p>
<p>"Agreed." Tailgate leaned against the holotable, close enough that his helm broke through part of the hologram. "What do you think about two different entry and exit points? We split somewhere well outside the city, each take two quadrants, and meet back up once we're clear of Vos."</p>
<p>"Are you asking if I like it, or if I think it's a good idea? Because those are two different answers." Arcee studied the network of tunnels with a frown. "I agree, but I say we rendezvous somewhere in the middle. There's no guarantee our comms will work down there, so a scheduled check-in would at least give us a little warning if the other's run into trouble."</p>
<p>"Since when do we run into trouble?" Tailgate grinned at the look on Arcee's face. "Yeah, okay, you've got a point. Got a meet-up point in mind?"</p>
<p>Arcee rolled her optics and tapped a point on the hologram. "This seems to be under the city center. I think we should stay well away from it. We can expect that to be pretty well guarded. If I had energon stores, that's where I'd keep them. And this, over here - " she pointed to a wider space located under one of the shortest buildings " - is probably going to be guarded, too."</p>
<p>"Why?" Tailgate took a closer look and grimaced. "Never mind. Because that was the old armory."</p>
<p>"We should try to at least confirm its status." Arcee was talking more to herself than Tailgate, optics darting from point to point on the map. "If they're actually stockpiling weapons under the city as well as above it, Prime needs to know that. We can confirm locations without getting too close. We can rendezvous in one of the tunnels off-center, I think. See where the tunnels radiate out from that center before they start winding? We can pick any one of those, depending how we divide up the quadrants."</p>
<p>"Okay, sure." Tailgate nodded amiably. "But I think you're forgetting something. Having an interior rendezvous is all well and good, but we still have to get into the tunnel network."</p>
<p>Arcee hopped off the table and gave him a puzzled look. "Pick an entrance. I counted at least five."</p>
<p>"Yeah, and while you were looking at the armory, I was looking at entrances and exits." Tailgate tapped a few keys, and the hologram zoomed in until they were looking at a close-up of the southernmost tunnel mouth. "See anything wrong with that?"</p>
<p>Arcee stared at the heavy steel wall covering the tunnel mouth, and heaved a prolonged sigh. "Yeah. Of course they have the entrances blocked."</p>
<p>"I don't think it's actually blocked for good." Tailgate managed to sound remarkably upbeat. "That's a Simfurian remote door. Probably has controls in one of the buildings nearest the exits."</p>
<p>"One of the buildings that we're strictly forbidden from going near on this scouting mission?" Arcee asked dryly.</p>
<p>"Yep." Tailgate beamed. "So do you want to <em>tell</em> Prime we're going to bend the rules, or do you want to just bend them and apologize later once we have the data?"</p>
<p>"Okay, slow your roll there, 'Gate." Arcee studied the door, tapping her fingers thoughtfully on the table. "We might not need to bend the rules, just a few wires. How's your hacking?"</p>
<p>"Not great, but you know that."</p>
<p>"I was hoping it might have improved." Arcee shot him a quick grin. "Lucky for both of us, mine's fine. So you've seen these doors before. The mechanism's built into both of those walls, right? And because controls fail, it needs to have some kind of failsafe?"</p>
<p>"Yeah." A matching grin spread across Tailgate's face. "You're thinking that if we cut into the walls, we can get access to the failsafe."</p>
<p>"I think it's worth a shot." Arcee zoomed the hologram in further, but couldn't make out any details on the wall. That was fine. "The manual controls are probably on the interior, but I'm willing to bet the wires aren't exclusively on that side. So, plan modification. Let's map out our quadrants, pick a door we'll both enter through, and then split from there. We can still use two separate exit points, because we shouldn't have any problem getting to those manual controls. Any objections?"</p>
<p>"Just one."</p>
<p>Arcee stared at Tailgate expectantly. "What?"</p>
<p>"If that hack into the wall doesn't work, what do you say we bring a small charge along and blow the door? We can probably make it look like a mechanical failure after the fact."</p>
<p>Arcee sighed. "I swear, you should've joined the Wreckers. We'll keep it as a backup option. Now, about those quadrants..."</p>
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